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Email templates in Aspen

Library staff can customize emails that go out to patrons for saved searches and purchase suggestions.

You need OPAC Administrator permissions to update email templates.

Customize email templates for saved searches

Saved searches emails are sent to patrons when new titles appear in their saved searches. To customize these emails:

  1. Go to Aspen Administration > Email Templates
  2. Click Add New
  3. Add a Name for your template (i.e. XXX saved searches)
  4. Select a Template Type of Saved Search Alert
    1. Important! If you don't select this, the emails will not send to your patrons
  5. The following fields you can copy from the default template, or create your own:
    1. Subject: Appears in the subject line of the email
    2. Plain Text Body: Appears in the body of the email if HTML emails are available
    3. HTML Body: Appears in the body of the email if HTML emails are displaying for the recipient

You can use these available template values in the Subject, Plain Text Body, and HTML Body:

  • %library.displayName% - The name of the home library
  • %library.baseUrl% - The URL to the home library catalog
  • %library.email% - The contact email of the home library
  • %user.firstname% - The first name of the patron
  • %user.lastname% - The last name of the patron
  • %user.ils_barcode% - The barcode of the patron
  • %searchHistory.url% - The URL for the patron to access their saved searches.
  • %searchHistory.updatedSearches% - A list of the searches that were updated.
  • %searchHistory.updatedSearchesHtml% - A list of the searches that were updated including HTML links to the search.
  • %searchHistory.updatedSearchesWithSampleTitles% - A list of the searches that were updated with sample titles that are new.
  • %searchHistory.updatedSearchesWithSampleTitlesHtml% - A list of the searches that were updated with sample titles that are new with HTML markup.

If you are comfortable working with HTML, you can also write custom HTML and include images, icons, etc. in the HTML Body area.

Customize email templates for purchase suggestions

Currently, only plain text emails are available for purchase suggestions. Each possible status for a suggestion (i.e. Purchased, Sent to ILL, etc.) has a unique email template you can optionally set up.

These are all documented in our purchase suggestions email template configuration documentation.